Book Review: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Okay, so the thing I love about this book is that, well, the simplicity of it. It isn’t one of those big, fancy books that makes your brain hurt in the first five minutes of reading it. And so now I know what you’re thinking. Why would I read your book review, or the book you’re reviewing if it sounds so boring? Just trust me.

Although it’s not big and fancy, it doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting. Just like life. 

It’s exactly how it sounds. It’s about a little house in a big woods. But… what if I told you it was more than that. It’s about a family in the 1870s, a family of five. At the time, there was Caroline, their mom, Charles, their dad, and their three daughters, Mary, Laura, and their baby sister Carrie (technically Caroline). 

The main character in the book is Laura, but it’s about the whole family, just from Laura’s viewpoint.

You see, it’s about a typical 1870s family. It’s about things they regularly did to survive. How they hunted, how they cooked food, how they made clothes, how they entertained themselves. About how they made their own cheese and butter.

  But that’s what I think is just so interesting about it.

This book is about things that they did in the 1870s, not in the 2020s. It’s natural to think that something you’re not used to is interesting.

Now, when people need cheese, or butter, or meat of any sort, they go to the grocery store. But back then, when people needed cheese, or butter, or meat, they went outside. They went to the barn, milked a cow, and made the cheese, butter, or both! When they needed meat, they went into the woods, and they hunted! And most people these days don’t do those things, because they don’t have to. They have everything a short drive away.

And so that’s what makes this such a good read because it isn’t a typical topic.

Granted, a lot of the books I like to read are based in the time frames of the Civil War, or California gold mining of 1849, or things around there, so in Emerson’s Corner, it is kind of a typical topic.

Thank you so much for reading my book review! It is my honest opinion of this book, and me giving you a little teaser of the book through my eyes. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, make sure to check out the shop, where we have a link to this very book, Little House in the Big Woods.